Brick Firm's Medical Marijuana Permit Bid Fails

BRICK, NJ — A controversial plan to open a medical marijuana dispensary in Brick Township is on hold, after the company that had hoped to open the facility was not named among the six firms chosen by the state to formally apply for the permits.

The New Jersey Department of Health on Monday announced the names of the businesses that have been selected to apply for the six permits for new dispensaries, which were announced in July by Gov. Phil Murphy as part of an effort to expand access to medical marijuana to the more than 38,000 patients on the state's registry, department officials said.

Jersey Shore Therapeutic Health Care of Brick was one of 146 applicants for the new licenses and one of 45 in the central region. It had been seeking approval from the Brick Township Board of Adjustment for the facility to be opened at the site of the former Ocean First bank on Adamston Road.

But the firm, owned by Anne Davis of Brick and Karen Medlin, a Marlboro Township resident, had met significant opposition from neighbors of bank site. The proposal was supposed to go back before the zoning board in January.

Davis said she and Medlin were disappointed by the department's choices of applicants.

"None were awarded in Ocean or Monmouth County despite being the second- and third-highest register patient population," Davis said. "Our area is still woefully underserved. For that reason, we will be applying next round." (READ MORE: Brick Company Hopes To Open Medical Marijuana Dispensary In Town)

The health department said the six businesses — two each in the north, central and south parts of the state — chosen to go forward with the application process now must pass background checks, provide evidence of a dispensary location and municipal approval, and comply with all regulations under the Division of Medical Marijuana, including safety and security requirements, before receiving approval to grow medical marijuana.

The businesses chosen were: NETA NJ, LLC, of Phillipsburg, and GTI New Jersey, LLC, of Paterson, in the north region; Verano NJ LLC, which will have its dispensary in Elizabeth and its cultivation site in Rahway, and Justice Grown of Ewing, for the central locations; and in the south, MPX New Jersey, which will have its dispensary in Atlantic City and its cultivation site in Galloway, and Columbia Care New Jersey in Vineland. There were 50 applicants for the northern region, 45 in the central region and 51 in the southern region.

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"Six very strong applicants were selected, including minority-owned and women-owned businesses," Health Commissioner Dr. Shereef Elnahal said. "We will meet with them early next year to refine their timetable for growing product and opening their doors. We are committed to an equitable expansion of supply to meet growing patient demand, and these new locations will reach patients that currently have to travel longer distances to obtain the therapy."

New Jersey's medical marijuana program has added more than 20,000 patients since Murphy took office and there are 1,530 patient caregivers participating in the program. More than 350 physicians have been added to the program, for a total of 860.

Davis, who is a medical marijuana patient, and Medlin, who is the caregiver for a patient who receives treatment with medical marijuana, had sought to bring the facility to Brick because currently patients have to travel more than an hour, sometimes two, to obtain their medication, and local patients had packed meetings to show their support.

Neighbors, however, had expressed concerns about traffic, the potential for criminal behavior and safety concerns.

An informal public meeting in October was a sign of things to come, with heated emotions and flaring tempers that nearly resulted a fight at one hearing.

Residents who oppose placing the facility so near to homes sparred verbally with attorney John Paul Doyle, who represents Jersey Shore Therapeutic Health Care, at the informal meeting, and argued with experts testifying for the company during the zoning board hearings, despite repeated explanations from zoning board attorney John Miller that public comment comes the end of the hearing process.

The continued hearing a month later, on Nov. 19, wound up as a postponement of the application after opponents of the application and supporters packed the council chambers to standing-room-only and spilled into the hallway. Miller, citing concerns that members of the public did not have full access and that could put the board in a position of facing legal action on the basis of not providing enough access, urged the board to delay the hearing to hold it in a larger venue.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

• Brick Company Hopes To Open Medical Marijuana Dispensary In Town
• Tension Marks Meeting On Proposed Brick Medical Marijuana Site
• Medical Marijuana Dispensary Proposal Before Brick Zoners
• Brick Zoners Continue Medical Marijuana Dispensary Hearing
• State Delays New Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Decision
• Medical Marijuana Dispensary Proposal Before Brick Zoners Again
• Medical Marijuana Dispensary Proposal In Brick Postponed

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